Man Charged With Setting Fire To His Home, Car

FORT LAUDERDALE — A man suspected of setting at least seven fires in his neighborhood was arrested Tuesday on charges he set fire to his own apartment and car, police said.

George Durant, 67, is accused of setting his bedroom ablaze at about 6:45 a.m. as his wife, Ida, 72, slept in another room.

She was rescued by a passer-by who dashed into the apartment in the 500 block of Southwest Fourth Avenue, police said. Durant stood outside, police said, watching flames shoot from a shattered window.

``A witness told him his house was on fire and that his wife was in there, and he just nonchalantly walks back -- no hurry,`` said police Detective Tom Mangifesta, an arson investigator.

About five hours earlier, at 1:35 a.m., Grace Tyson, 60, the Durants` landlady and next-door neighbor, woke up to find a corner of her living room on fire.

Someone entered her apartment through a dining room window and set a china closet on fire with a flammable liquid, Mangifesta said. The blaze caused about $5,000 damage to the apartment, most of it smoke damage.

As firefighters battled that blaze, a separate fire broke out in the Durants` apartment, police said. Durant said he hadn`t entered the house, but there was no evidence the apartment had been broken into.

Damage to the Durants` apartment, estimated at about $1,000, was limited to the bedroom both times.

Durant, a retired welder, has denied setting the fires. He is charged with two -- the second one at his apartment and the torching of his car last Friday. He is a suspect in five others in the neighborhood, including the fire next door, the first fire at his house, and some brush and trash fires, police said.

Durant`s car was not insured against fire, and his apartment had minimal insurance, Mangifesta said. ``It wasn`t for the insurance. We don`t have any motive right now.``

In the car fire, a witness reported seeing Durant douse the interior of his 1974 Chevrolet Impala with what appeared to be charcoal lighter fluid and set it ablaze with a match. Mangifesta said the suspect then grabbed a hose and started putting out the fire, but the car had already been destroyed.

He later told police that he had thrown a lighter fluid container in the New River, police said.